As always, whenever there’s the slightest chance that the Frogs will vote for anything other than Lefty government, the normally-fractious Socialists (of which there are many, to cater to all the flavors of Big Brother) suddenly close ranks, declare “Nous sommes tous de gauche!” and the “Rightwing” party is put back in its place.
Which is what happened yesterday. Andrew Neil explains:
The traditional French fallback when Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally does well in the first round of elections as it did last Sunday – of ganging up against it in the second round – was more effective yesterday than anybody expected.
Far from making the hard Right the biggest party in parliament, as was widely expected, the French people gave first place, according to the exit polls, to the hard Left. Almost nobody saw it coming.
Nobody, that is. except people who understand the Frogs and their love of socialism.
Instead of coming first but without an overall majority the National Rally came a poor third.
So, what next?
For all the celebrations on the Left…
…France now has a hung parliament, which condemns it to political paralysis or worse for the foreseeable future – a lame duck president and a parliament that will be so consumed by battles between hard Left and Right that coalition government will probably be impossible.
Welcome to Back to the Future, French style. The Fourth Republic, cobbled together in the aftermath of the Second World War, only lasted from 1946 until 1958. During its 12 years there were 21 governments.
Which is probably what we’re going to see in the foreseeable future.
General Charles de Gaulle changed all that in 1958 by creating the Fifth Republic, with a strong president and a diminished National Assembly. He had himself in mind as president when he designed it, though the Fifth Republic has endured to this day.
After yesterday’s elections, France is going to look a lot more like the weak and chaotic Fourth Republic than the stronger, more stable Fifth.
And so it goes. Pass the vin rouge, Pierre. Foutu alors.
